Former combat medic sentenced for striking trooper

OLYMPIA — A judge has sentenced a former Marine combat medic to 30-days electronic home monitoring for failing to stop after his pickup grazed a Washington State Patrol trooper on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 101.

The Olympian reported that the April collision caused Trooper Tricia Krantz to miss work for four months. The 13-year veteran of the patrol said she suffered a hip injury as well as a disc injury after being hit.

She told the newspaper that if the pickup driven by Matthew Nye had been inches closer, she would have been killed. Krantz says she’s just happy to be alive.

Nye does not have to begin his 30-day electronic home monitoring sentence until September, because he is allowed to continue his work as a commercial fisherman in Alaska this spring and summer.